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2023 SESSION


HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 830
Commending Kwame Alexander.

 

Agreed to by the House of Delegates, February 21, 2023
Agreed to by the Senate, February 24, 2023

 

WHEREAS, Kwame Alexander, an award-winning children’s author, poet, and educator, recently produced a television series, The Crossover, based on his Newbery Medal–winning novel-in-verse of the same name, which premieres on the Disney Channel and the Disney+ streaming service in April 2023; and

WHEREAS, Kwame Alexander is a Chesapeake native, a seventh-generation Virginian, and the descendant of an African American patriot and hero who served with the Union Army during the Civil War; and

WHEREAS, Kwame Alexander is a best-selling author of more than 35 books, which have earned him numerous awards over the years, including the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, a Coretta Scott King Award honor book mention, three NAACP Image Award nominations, and the inaugural Conroy Legacy Award; and

WHEREAS, Kwame Alexander produced The Crossover television series, a coming-of-age drama that centers around teen brothers and basketball phenoms Josh and Jordan Bell as they grow and mature both on and off the court, alongside basketball superstar LeBron James; and

WHEREAS, in 2019, Kwame Alexander launched Versify, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers, to champion a diverse array of unconventional authors and stories deserving of wider readership; and

WHEREAS, Kwame Alexander’s other recent endeavors include a John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts-commissioned national tour of his children’s musical Acoustic Rooster’s Barnyard Boogie: Starring Indigo Blume and the founding of the Barbara E. Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic in Ghana in 2018 as a part of his Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty for Ghana international literacy program; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby commend Kwame Alexander for his eagerly awaited television series The Crossover and for his many other initiatives to promote literacy and empower young readers and writers; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to Kwame Alexander as an expression of the General Assembly’s admiration for his achievements and for his contributions to the Commonwealth.